In the conversation Hannibal is reported to have said that he considered Alexander the greatest general, Pyrrhus next, and, had he himself conquered Scipio, he would have placed himself before either.
Scipio lived to see Rome grow from an Italian power to be practically the mistress of the world.

He was of marked intellectual culture, and as conversant with Greek as with his mother tongue.

He possessed a charm which made him popular at a time when the culture and arts of Greece were not so courted at Rome as in later days.
Hannibal, after the defeat of Antiochus, was demanded by the Romans, but, escaping, took refuge in Crete, and subsequently with Prusias, King of Bithynia.

His surrender was demanded, and troops were sent to arrest him.

Seeing no way of escape, he opened the bead on his ring and swallowed the poison which it contained (183).
Thus died one of the greatest of commanders, without attaining the aim of his life.